as of late

friday night hank, beth and i went down to denver to a marriott client event which included the parade of lights. such a great parade. even the band people put lights in their uniforms and on their instruments. the floats are awesome, and it is really a cool parade. totally adds to spirit and fun of the season as it winds in the heart of downtown where the old buildings along the street are lit and the trees strewn with white lights. it was also 50 degrees out (yes, even at 8:30 at night) which made it all the more enjoyable. it was packed and the bleachers we sat on were so jammed full that all of us could barely move. little tough with a 9 month old. she did pretty well... for the first 20 minutes. and then she was done. so we made our way out of the crowd and watched the rest from our hotel room 19 stories above. bummer, but nevertheless magical still.

the next day i woke up feeling terribly sick and just, blah. and i had promised a friend that i would help her clean her new house before moving in. after getting back from denver i rested for a bit, and then went over to help and i was completely and totally worthless. sorry friend. i feel much better now, please call me if you want me to come out again. i promise to be much more productive.

we also just finished putting the lights up as of like, 20 minutes ago. and thank goodness because i am really tired of having christmas storage bins sitting in my front room. they are gone now (thank you my love), and i feel much better. the house looks awesome (again, thank you my love). no pics to post yet, but perhaps in the near future. our street is definitely the best in the area. people are starting to drive up and down it slowly to look at the lights.

as we were finishing up outside, a guy came out of our neighbors house and said to our neighbor "the lights in your yard look pretty good here. your whole street looks good. you guys got some kinda community contest goin' or something?"

i wanted to say, "no, but we should. because we would totally win."

well, we might not win - there are some pretty good light displays around here. but we do keep adding lights every year, so eventually we'd win. we'd have to.

we even put lights on our deck this year. (i know, who sees those anyway? well, we do. and we like it okay?) and while we were back there putting lights on our deck, i had the most brilliant idea ever. we actually have a really great back yard that's fairly large with trees and bushes that border the perimeter of the grass and now we have this great deck.... (do you see where i'm headed with this?) next year we are going to put lights in our back yard (we're done with lights this year) and have and Ice Party (or some other clever name) and have the party in the backyard with with an amazing display of lights to keep us entertained. and we'll have lots of hot chocolate and cider, maybe a sweet white elephant gift exchange, bring your gloves and your scarves... come on! does that not sound so rad and original??? i'm so stoked on it. like, seriously. hank is stoked on the lights in the backyard thing, but not so much the party yet. i think he thinks i'll forget or grow out of the idea by next year, but nope. i won't. i think it's awesome. it's totally going to happen. so get ready friends and fam who live close by. you have a year to gear up for it.

and lastly (how random is this????) i've decided i'm going to live my life as though i am about to be a participant on the amazing race. anybody watch it? (and am i the only one who thinks nick is the biggest jerk on the planet...?) because here's the thing: the people who make it to the end and do the best are always physically fit and in shape. the notso-fit folks usually get booted in the first few weeks. and since being on the show is a personal dream/fantasy/lifelong goal of mine, so i've decided that if i act like i'm really going to be on the show, i will train and eat and get in shape so that i can make it to the end and win (obviously). and since i haven't found any other things to motivate me as of late, i'm just rolling with it. i start training for it tomorrow. and there you have it.

ps: hank just saw how long my post was and said, geez, that is so much to read. is there even enough space on the internet for that? and i responded that no, i'm sure my blog will implode because i have more than 2 paragraphs. good grief already.